1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Shern/.

cate about 32 degrees of proof spirit. The arumbadores, or cellarmen, who stand by in readiness, are all well-made,active men in the habitual uniform of the Jerezbodegas—caps,coloui-ed shirts, light trousers, and the all-essential crimson or scai'let sash; and certainly looking as though unlimited sherry agreed remarkably weU with them. Tub-shaped funnels, inside which — are fine hair sieves, serving in turn for all the butts, are fixed into the bung-holes of the fii-st and the third butts,and then the arumbadores commence drawing ofE the seven arrobas of amon- tillado pasado in the following fashion:—A small tub is placed under the cask containing this wine to catch any that may chance to be spilt. One of the men then takes a clavo, or huge round nail bent at the end, which is spear-shaped, and a canuto, or short wooden tube in which a cork has been inserted. Placing a jar that he holds in his left hand under the bung at the head of the butt,he draws the bung out with the clavo, catching in the jar whatever wine pours forth before he succeeds in ramming the canuto into the hole. The cork of the canuto is now removed,and,the jar being filled with the wine which gushes out,a second jar is slipped into its place at precisely the right moment,scarcely so much as a thimbleful of -wine being wasted. The man's companions keep handing him fresh jars, and receiving from him those akeady filled. These they empty into the shipping butts. These so-called jars (jarras) are a kind of wooden pitcher bound round with iron, and having a sharp rim and iron handle. They hold three-fourths of an arroba. The seven arrobas of pasado and the ten of double palma being filled in, only 11 out of the 12|- arrobas of single palma are added, so as to allow of an alteration in the character of the wine in case the blend should not turn out precisely as intended. The half-arroba of old Pedro Jimenez is being drawn from a cask on the upper tier by means of a metal syphon introduced into the bung-hole; after which the contents of one of the casks of blended wine are stirred welltogether with a wooden implement resembling a small oar. The amalgamation completed,some of the wine is drawn offand taken to the sample-